Ascalon > Ashqelon Israel Israel

…Ashkelon, …

…effect their final capture of Ascalon.

Caliph Umar I stops the Muslim invasion and appoints Abu Ubaidah to the governorship of Syria.

The Franks now possess the entire coast except for Ascalon and …

A new plan is made to attack Ascalon following the crusaders’ failure at Damascus.

Conrad brings his troops here, but no further help arrives, due to the lack of trust that had resulted from the failed siege.

This mutual distrust will linger for a generation due to the defeat, to the ruin of the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land.

After quitting Ascalon, a dismayed Conrad decamps immediately, returning to Constantinople to further his alliance with Manuel.

The Second Crusade, riven by internal conflicts and repulsed by the Muslims with relative ease, is abandoned.

An unqualified military disaster, it has nevertheless enhanced the visibility, and hence the prestige, of the French crown.

The Fatimid rulers of Ashkelon had fortified the city in 1150 with fifty-three towers, as it is their most important frontier fortress.

The city is captured in August 1153  after a five month siege by a crusader army led by King Baldwin III of Jerusalem.

It is now added to the County of Jaffa to form the County of Jaffa and Ascalon, which becomes one of the four major seigneuries of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Baldwin’s capture of Ascalon, which will prove to be the last major conquest of the Franks, has extended the crusaders' coastline southward but has brought Egypt into the sphere of conflict.

William of Montferrat and Reynald of Châtillon, with the King's consent, give a grant of land to the new Castilian military order, the Order of Montjoie, commanded by Count Rodrigo Alvarez de Sarria.

However, William's activities in Outremer are cut short in April 1177 when he falls ill, probably from malaria, at Ascalon, and dies here in June, leaving Sibylla pregnant with the future king Baldwin V.

His body is taken to Jerusalem and buried at the Hospital of St. John.

Baldwin IV, learning of Saladin's plans, leaves Jerusalem with, according to William of Tyre, only three hundred and seventy-five knights to attempt a defense at Ascalon, but Baldwin is stalled here by a detachment of troops sent by Saladin, who, again according to William of Tyre, has twenty-six thousand men.

The true numbers are impossible to estimate, since the Christian sources refer only to knights and give no account of the number of infantry and Turcopoles, except that it is evident from the number of the dead and wounded that there must have been more men than the three hundred and seventy-five "knights".

It is also uncertain whether the so-called knights included mounted sergeants or squires, or whether they were true knights.

Just as uncertain are the numbers of their opponents.

An 1181 review listed Saladin's Mamluk forces at six thousand nine hundred and seventy-six Ghulams and one thousand five hundred and fifty-three Qaraghulams.

However, there would have been additional soldiers available in Syria and elsewhere, while auxiliaries might have accompanied the Mamluks.

Whether these would have added up to a total of twenty-six thousand reported by William of Tyre is impossible to say.

…Ascalon have fallen within three months.

Saladin and his lieutenants by September 1187 have occupied most of the major strongholds in the kingdom and all of the ports south of Tripoli.

Gaza, which has declined during the Crusades, reverts to Muslim control; it will never regain its former importance.

Ascalon, its fortifications earlier razed by Saladin, has been occupied and refortified during the winter months.

The spring of 1192 sees continued negotiations and further skirmishing between the opposing forces.